Now, before we start we need to make it very clear that there are many theories about the links between Tangled and Frozen, none of which I’ve come up with myself but this none popped up on Tumblr recently and I think it is more than plausible that Disney have purposely linked these movies together. Take a look below and make your own mind up.

We start with Frozen. Remember early on in the film, during “For the First Time in Forever,” when the castle doors open for Elsa’s coronation and Anna finally gets to step outside and meet other people? Watch carefully…

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If you blink, you’ll miss them. But they’re there. Down in the left hand corner.

“What if the king and queen of Arendelle were on their way to Rapunzel and Eugene’s wedding when their boat sank, and that’s why Rapunzel and Eugene felt the need to come to Elsa’s coronation ceremony?”

Frozen doesn’t tell us much about where the king and queen of Arendelle were heading, just Elsa asking, “Do you have to go?” and Anna sending them off with, “See you in two weeks!”

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But we know they traveled by ship and we know what happened to that ship:

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The time lines match up too.

After the shipwreck and funeral, Frozen jumps forward three years…

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Is it just a coincidence then that it was also three years after Tangled was released that Frozen was released? Tangled premiered in 2010 and Frozen hit theaters in 2013.

“So if it’s true that Elsa and Anna’s parents were going to Rapunzel’s [wedding] three years ago (actually when the movie Tangled released) when their ship sank, which was the reason Rapunzel and Flynn felt the need to come to Elsa’s coronation…GUYS. What if that sunken ship in The Little Mermaid is the king and queen of Arendelle’s??”

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This connections takes a little research:

No movie explicity pinpoints the real world location where it takes place. We know that Tangled takes place in the Kingdom of Corona. According to Disney Wikia:

By looking at five things: architecture, nature, landscape, politics, and the styles of dress in Tangled, the best fit for a real-world Kingdom of Corona would be along the Baltic Sea coast of Germany and Poland at some point from 16th to the 18th century.

The name “Arendelle” is based on the Norwegian town of Arendal, located southwest of the Norwegian capital, Oslo. In Norwegian, “Aren” means “eagle”, and “delle” is most likely derived from “dal” which means “valley.”

And The Little Mermaid story was written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. There’s even a Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen.

So Corona = Germany. Arendelle = Norway. And The Little Mermaid takes place off the coast of Denmark.

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Does it all line up?

Is this the same ship?

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Hey, we’re just glad no king and queen of Arendelle skeletons popped up while Ariel was frolicking in that ship to answer the question definitively.